I would start out working on your braces. See the second link (highlighted) below.
If your braces become second nature, it will help your rolls, and you won't need to roll as much.
Meanwhile, I recommend these concepts and resources:
I suggest immersing yourself in the kayak rolling videos, reviewing at least one of them before and after you go out to practice. This will help you pick up on things which didn’t sink in the previous times through.
There are a lot of subtle points to learn and keep in mind.
It takes awhile to assimilate all of these. But if you recognize, learn, and practice them, it can eventually become second nature.
Some basic concepts are:
1) Become confident with your wet exit, so you can stay calm.
2) First, pull yourself to the surface with your set-up (non-rolling) knee, enough so you feel air on your hands in the set-up position. In this position, your chest will be toward the boat, and your body will be wrapped around the boat, in a “C” or “comma” shape.
3) Then, come out of your tuck and sweep your head, body, and paddle out away from the boat as far as you can. It helps to face ("look at") the extended paddle blade.
4) Then release, or even push away with, your set-up knee, as you pull on your rolling knee and rotate your hips to rotate the boat upright, while simultaneously pushing your head and lower ear down on the water and toward your lower shoulder, while using your outstretched paddle for support.
Note: You must come out of your tuck and release your set-up knee. It will be difficult to roll if you are still pulling on your set-up knee. At this point, try to even push the boat away from you with your set-up knee. It will help your rolling knee apply more rotating power to the boat.
5) As you rotate the boat upright, one of the most difficult but most important things is to leave your head in the water as long as possible, and keep your lower ear on your lower shoulder until after the rotating boat pulls your torso completely out of the water, with your weight on your opposite butt cheek. Concentrate on rotating the boat upright, keeping your head in the water, where it will be lighter, and letting the boat rotation rotate your head out of the water.
6) You have to concentrate, to keep from straightening your neck and lifting your head, because lifting your head will cause you to pull on the non-rolling knee, which kills the roll and dumps you back into the water. Some suggest practicing steps 2 - 6 without a paddle, instead holding onto the side of a pool, the bow of someone's boat, a tree limb at water level, etc.
7) As the rotating boat pulls your body out of the water, drag your paddle across the surface of the water, toward the boat, for support. Extending your upper elbow and paddle shaft across the boat helps to move your CG over the boat. Pull the blade toward the boat, instead of down. If you make a mistake, and pull down on the paddle, it will soon become vertical, and provide no support. If you drag the paddle blade across the water, keeping the paddle shaft as parallel to the surface of the water as possible, it will continue to provide good support until your weight shifts to the opposite butt cheek.
7a) If your paddle gets to the side of the boat before you are completely up, you can scull it forward while crunching your abs toward the front deck, to lower your center of gravity.
7b) Or, you can also lower your center of gravity by sculling the paddle backwards while extending your back onto and over the back deck. (I usually push my back onto the back deck when hand rolling, without a paddle, along with rotating my upper torso to look at the sky and extending my upper arm across the boat to the other side, to shift my CG over the boat.)
8) Keep #5-#7 above in mind (without 7a or 7b), and you will end up with your upper body curved in a sideways “C” or “comma” shape. If your momentum is so great that you feel you are going to roll too far and fall in on the opposite side, just straighten up the “C”. This will stop the roll immediately. Plus, if you have kept the paddle shaft fairly horizontal, the paddle blade on that side should be ready for a brace, if needed.
9) A longer shaft and a larger blade area will make it easier to learn the roll. After the concepts are ingrained, you can migrate to a shorter shaft and smaller blade area. Some suggest using a paddle float, or extending the paddle shaft out to one side, in the initial learning stages.
10) It is easiest to learn the roll in a warm water pool, progressing to a warm, flatwater lake, then to a choppy lake, then to class two water, and above.
After learning the roll on your "onside", you will basically have to start all over, to learn it on your "offside". You should become proficient with the roll on both side, because you don't know which way you will turn over, or if a rock or other obstruction will prevent you from rolling up on one side.
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Each of the following links contains some little, unique nugget, as well as support for the basic concepts found in the others.
1. "Sea Kayak Rolling": www.qcckayaks.com/Kayak-Rolling
2. My favorite roll instruction video is EJ's Rolling and Bracing:
store.jacksonkayak.com/ejs-rolling-and-bracing-dvd If your braces become second nature, it will help your rolls, and you won't need to roll as much.
3. The Anybody Can Kayak - Rolling DVD contains additional information not included in EJ’s Rolling and Bracing:
www.anybodycankayak.com/rolling
4. “How to Backdeck Roll” instructional video! - Jackson Kayak
m.youtube.com/watch?v=sFuoA7TUtPk
5. I believe Susan Eda uses the technique shown in “The Kayak Roll” video:
• REI carries "The Kayak Roll", by Performance Video, on DVD, ($29.95).
• Southwest Paddlesports sometimes has this video and the books, if they aren’t sold out. www.paddlesports.com
• Or, you can order it in DVD or VHS format from Performance Video, on the web (www.performancevideo.com/the_kayak_roll) or by phone (24 hour order line in the US: 888-259-5805).
Also, check out the free, Whitewater Kayak rolling sample instruction at Performance Video’s online, E-School, at http://www.performancevideo.com/kayak_roll_instruction.
After watching the sample, you might want the entire Kayak Roll eBook... "a perfect study guide to accompany our video instruction".
An old, standby kayak rolling instruction video is “Grace Under Pressure” It is the one I used, when first learning to roll. This video teaches the “C-to-C” version of the kayak roll and also teaches the “hand roll” (without using a paddle). A few copies of the original, 1992 VHS version are still available on Amazon:www.amazon.com/Grace-Under-Pressure-Learning-Progression/dp/B0013CKKD6
It was later updated in DVD format, with new techniques and a section on the sweep roll. But I have not seen the DVD advertised recently.
6. There are hundreds of kayak instructional videos to be found on You Tube. For example:
Anybody Can Kayak! Rolling - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV9BO678zHM
I like this "The Kayak Roll" 3 Part, step-by-step series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlgKotwHzSY
The Lever or Pawlata roll:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlhS-DFGjoc
https://www.google.com/search?q=performance+video+The+Kayak+Roll&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=s
http://dnserrorassist.att.net/search/?q=Learning+The+kayak+Roll+on+Youtube&t=
etc.
So, immerse yourself in rolling instruction!
For Further Study:
Greenland style kayak competition rolling requires a special boat outfitted for each person.
Examples of these rolls are in the video, "Rolling With Maligiaq", which was originally produced and distributed by John Heath, 1142 Thornton Road, Houston, Texas 77018.
Just search the internet for "rolling with maligiaq", to find online video clips and DVD's. Some of these rolls can be adapted for use in other boats, and with Euro-style paddles.
I found the "butterfly" roll to be a fairly easy trick roll to perform, in a glove-fitting whitewater playboat.
After becoming proficient with the roll in class two whitewater, here are some resources for making it "bombproof" when encountering various whitewater river features:
"The Combat Roll", DVD by www.whitewaterinstruction.com
"The BOMBproof roll and BEYOND!', book by Paul Dutky, published by Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham, Alabama, www.amazon.com/Bombproof-Roll-Beyond-Paddling-Edge.
Enjoy,
David